Majority Vote

The California Public Employees' Retirement System is claiming significant success with a nearly year-old initiative to pressure companies in which it invests to require a majority vote of shareholders to elect directors. The $221-billion pension fund, the largest in the nation, now is setting its sights on Apple Inc. . CalPERS, which has a long history of corporate-governance activism, said it plans to introduce shareholder majority-vote resolutions at Apple and three other companies next year.

WASHINGTON - The Senate headed for a bitter conclusion to an often-acrimonious year, with Democrats vowing to remain in session until they confirmed Janet Yellen as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve along with other pending nominees, despite delaying tactics by Republicans who are upset over new filibuster restrictions. Rather than adjourn Thursday, as many members had hoped, the Senate was due to remain in session overnight and probably hold a rare weekend vote after Republicans spurned a request from Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said directors on its board would now be elected by a majority of votes cast, rather than by plurality. An incumbent director who doesn't receive a majority vote must "promptly" tender his or her resignation, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A board committee would then consider the resignation and recommend whether it should be accepted. Wal-Mart joins FedEx Corp., Home Depot Inc. and H.J. Heinz Co.

WASHINGTON - Senate leaders on Friday called a cease-fire in a weeklong fight over the chamber's new rules that limit filibusters, ending a nearly 48-hour marathon session. In the end, senators' aversion to what would have been a rare weekend session trumped the desire to score political points. Republicans had been dragging out debate over nominations to protest the move by the Democratic majority late last month to all but eliminate the minority's ability to filibuster presidential nominations.

Furon Co. shareholders Tuesday approved a change in how the company's directors are elected, which will make it more difficult for a potential hostile raider to gain control of its board. At the company's annual meeting, shareholders approved the election of directors by majority vote rather than by cumulative vote, which had until recently been required by state law.

Local school district parcel taxes could be increased by a simple majority vote of the electorate instead of a two-thirds vote under legislation approved by the Senate. A 23-10 vote sent the bill (SB 1) by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), the chairman of the Education Committee, to the Assembly. Last year, 82% of local ballot measures designed to increase school funding were approved by a majority of the voters, Hart said, but only 29% of those met the two-thirds vote requirement.

It's the oldest and most successful strategy for fighting ballot measures: Argue that a proposal "is not what it seems." Don't necessarily argue against the merits of the measure's intent. That's often a weak case. Instead, strive to confuse. Point to "drafting flaws." Warn of "unintended consequences." As in: This proposition purports to offer free apple pie. You may like apple pie. But don't be fooled. This is not apple pie. It's a crab apple tart.

Were California voters especially wise Tuesday when they adopted both Proposition 25, which erases the Legislature's crippling two-thirds vote requirement for adopting a budget, and Proposition 26, which imposes a new two-thirds mandate for imposing or raising a fee? End the gridlock, perhaps they were saying, but not at the expense of taxpaying families or businesses. Or were they being especially clueless, telling Democratic lawmakers to adopt the budget they want, but without knowing or caring that they were simultaneously making the job close to impossible by depriving those same politicians of one of their chief budget-balancing tools?

June 20, 1991 | Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

Explicit Bill: A bill that would make it illegal to sell records with "explicit" warning stickers to minors failed to generate a majority vote in the Louisiana House of Representatives on Tuesday, but is expected to be voted on again before the end of the week. The measure calls for fines up to $1,000 and six months in jail.

A state of siege in effect in El Salvador since 1980 expired when the conservative minority in the National Assembly refused to act on a bill to renew the restrictions. Gen. Adolfo Blandon, head of the military chiefs of staff, in a reference to leftist guerrillas, warned that national security is in danger as a result. Passage of the bill requires a two-thirds majority vote.

WASHINGTON - The House overwhelmingly approved a budget deal Thursday designed to avert another government shutdown, a rare bipartisan accord that breaks with the tea-party-driven cycle of brinkmanship and could signal a new era of political pragmatism in Congress. The agreement represents a victory for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who appears to have regained at least momentary control of his rebellious majority and turned back the super-sized influence of outside conservative groups.

WASHINGTON - Republican resentment over the Democrats' decision to change Senate rules and eliminate filibusters on nominations has led to a form of trench warfare in the already deliberative body, producing long hours and hard feelings as the Senate finishes the first week of life with its new rules in place. Democrats, after an all-night session that continued uninterrupted Thursday, said the marathon schedule was a small price to pay. Two new judges are now set to join the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, giving Democratic appointees a majority on the court.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted to confirm two more of President Obama's stalled nominations in an unusual all-night session forced by Republican objections to the historic change to the chamber's filibuster rules. In a vote after 1 a.m. EST Thursday, Nina Pillard became the second nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the nation's second-most powerful court, to win confirmation under new rules that allow most nominees to be advanced by simple majority vote.

WASHINGTON - The first casualty of the Senate's post-nuclear era may be the long weekend. After Senate Democrats made a historic change to the Senate's filibuster rules, requiring only a majority vote instead of a three-fifths threshold to advance most nominations, Republicans vowed that there would be consequences. But in the short term, there is little the minority party can do to stop the Democratic majority from voting to confirm a dozen or more long-stalled nominations between now and the end of the year, as Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

Senators have long considered any change to filibuster rules to be "the nuclear option. " But the recent action by Democrats to limit the use of filibusters in blocking most presidential nominations didn't go nearly far enough. Now is the time to get rid of the Senate's archaic and abusive filibuster in all matters that come before it. And fortunately, Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) are taking advantage of the momentum from the Senate vote to try to do just that.

He did it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , once a defender of Senate tradition, triggered the so-called nuclear option Thursday by pushing through a rule change to allow the confirmation of most presidential nominees by a simple majority. The final straw was the Republicans' filibustering of three of President Obama's nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on the transparent pretext that the court was underworked and should have fewer members.

In "It's Time to Fix the Initiative Process" (Nov. 10), Michael Hiltzik lists several possible reforms of the initiative process. I would suggest one more: that no initiative may pass except by a majority vote in which at least 50% of the electorate participates. If the turnout is less than 50%, no initiative can pass. This would eliminate or reduce shopping for low turnout dates, attempting to suppress voting, and sponsoring initiatives of no great interest to the public. It would also help ensure that initiatives reflect the will of the people in the first place.

In his column about the overuse of bonds by state government (Opinion, Oct. 7), Cary Lowe incorrectly states Proposition 136, which I authored, requires a two-thirds vote for new taxes. In fact, Proposition 136 requires a simple majority vote if the taxes go into the general fund where spending can be prioritized. The two-thirds requirement applies only to "special taxes," those taxes which are permanently locked in for special purposes. Lowe also misses the mark when he argues that general obligation bonds should receive a majority vote for passage.

WASHINGTON - Democrats made a historic change to Senate rules Thursday, ending the minority party's ability to use filibusters to block most presidential nominations and, in the process, virtually guaranteeing that the rest of President Obama's term will be dominated by executive actions and court battles rather than legislation. In changing the long-standing rules with a near party-line vote in the middle of the session, Democrats brushed aside a century of congressional tradition and further embittered relations between the parties on an already deadlocked Capitol Hill.